


Pilot Revisited

by Candyoranges



Category: Eureka (TV)
Genre: Alternate Canon, Established Relationship, Family Feels, Father-Daughter Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-09
Updated: 2018-01-02
Packaged: 2018-07-14 00:19:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7144490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Candyoranges/pseuds/Candyoranges
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack and Zoe Carter don’t run their car off the road, but they still have a reason to end up in Eureka anyway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Finding a Place to Stop

Jack concentrated on the road, still too angry to speak. Well, angry and horrified; if he hadn’t been able to catch up with Zoe in Seattle he’s not sure what might have happened and it makes a swooping feeling appear in the pit of his stomach every time he thinks about it. He thought things had been getting better with Zoe. She was always eager for his custody weekends and he’d been enjoying getting to know the young woman she had somehow become while he’d been too buried in his work to notice. And Zoe had seemed to let up on some of her old resentments against him. Oh, she still became massively upset if his work impeded on one of their weekends or on his ability to see her school activities, but she had seemed more willing to accept that he never actually _wanted_ to cancel on her. Heck, she had even been wildly accepting of his new boyfriend – which was saying something, considering she absolutely hated Abby’s current love interest.

And then she had gone and run away. Again. _To Canada._

Jack just didn’t know what to do. Where was his little girl who came at him with tackling hugs whenever he walked in the door? Or even the laughing teenager who had been mocking his fashion choices two weekends ago? 

What had brought this on?

He sighed deeply. He felt out of his depth and wanted someone else to talk to about this, to commiserate with and to tell him that he wasn’t a complete failure as a father. He really wanted to call Nathan, even if his advice was of the unhelpful sort (because about half the time Nathan’s advice was something Jack chose to ignore completely), but Zoe was in the back of the car and that would feel awkward. He could close the partition to block sound, but even though Zoe had refused to talk to him for the last two hours he didn’t want to be the one shutting off contact.

Instead he found himself simply thinking about Nathan. He might not be able to call the man at the moment, but thinking about him was always distracting and it might take his mind off the furious tumult of other emotions currently swirling in his head.

He had met Nathan Stark in D.C. eight months ago when a case had had him temporarily assigned to the nation’s capital. It hadn’t been anything glamourous, they had simply met at a bar. Jack had had a long day and had just wanted a beer. He hadn’t been looking for a one-night-stand, but, well, Nathan was gorgeous and had pushed all the right buttons and Jack hadn’t been able to resist bringing the man back to his hotel. 

It had been the first time he’d been with anyone since Abby. The divorce had been hard and he had been very reluctant to get on that horse again to go out and try dating. And he’d never been very good at one-night-stands – he got attached too easily. If he was interested enough for that first night, then he’d be interested enough to want much more.

Luckily, his one-night-stand with Nathan had not ended with one night. They’d spent most of the weekend locked in his hotel room, and continued to get together for many subsequent nights while Jack was in D.C. When he finally left to return to L.A., it was with Nathan’s number in his phone and a promise of finding a way to make things work long-distance, even from opposite sides of the country. And they had. They were both buried in demanding jobs which skewed when they were available, but they still both made the effort for frequent phone calls and semi-frequent flights to visit each other for a weekend.

Jack was still surprised sometimes at how _happy_ he was. After things fell apart with Abby, he had felt like maybe he was incapable of sustaining a relationship. He’d felt that he’d never be able to recapture the happiness of those early years of their marriage. Nathan was nothing at all like Abby, but they understood each other in a way that Abby with all her psychoanalysis hadn’t. Maybe it was because Nathan had also come out of a long, drawn-out divorce where he’d been accused of being “an ego-centric workaholic with entitlement issues.” (And his ex-wife hadn’t even had a psychiatric background.)

Two weeks ago things had changed again. Nathan had said he was moving back to the West Coast (although not to L.A. unfortunately). More importantly, he had said he was tired of the long-distance dating and the seeing each other only once a month or so thing – and not in a ‘we should break up’ way, but in a ‘will you marry me’ way. Which, wow. 

Jack could feel a silly little smile trying to creep its way across his face. Nathan was his _fiancé_ , he still couldn’t believe it. Oh, they hadn’t figured out how and where they were going to manage the whole co-habiting part of the equation, but they were working on it. Nathan and his super-genius brain were apparently marketable enough to get a job anywhere, even if he was currently at the whim of the Department of Defense. Jack had gotten the impression though that this new transfer was a dream job, and so Jack himself had started to look at private security jobs in the Portland area. He loved being a U.S. Marshal, but he loved Nathan too, and maybe if he had a job that involved less travel and risk he could increase his custody of Zoe – although he also wouldn’t be nearby to see her at the drop of a hat either. 

Of course, he still didn’t know _exactly_ where Nathan was currently living, other than it being a huge, top-secret research facility about an hour outside of Portland. 

He glanced at the sign on the highway as he passed. Now there was an idea. It was still a full day’s drive back to Los Angeles, and it was only mid-afternoon now but he wasn’t looking forward to driving the whole night through after the previous sleepless night of chasing down Zoe. 

At the next gas station, he pulled out his maps. Zoe made a snarky comment about being lost while on the main highway, but he just gave her an exasperated smile. (Hey, it was the first thing she’d said to him in two hours.) Jack carried several detailed road atlases in his car, which had come in handy in tracking down criminals who liked to go to ground in the most out-of-the-way locations. Moreover, cross-referencing with topography maps of the terrain often helped him predict natural hiding spots. This time he simply examined the radius around Portland. (Nathan had planned for Jack to fly out in two weeks, and had said he’d drive the hour to meet up and spend the weekend in Portland.) Jack was pretty sure the town wasn’t to the north, as that would place it across the Washington border. Additionally, there had to be enough space for this secret facility, and the secrecy meant it was probably very remote and topographically hidden. Several quick scans later and he had his finger on Eureka, Oregon – because hopefully a town of crazy scientists would use a crazy science name and not something boring, and hence more inconspicuous, like Watertown.

Jack knew he could simply call Nathan and ask, especially since it was probably a little rude to just show up on the man’s doorstep. However, Nathan had been pretty clear that the town’s location was supposed to be a secret – hence why he was going to meet Jack in Portland. Asking meant putting his fiancé in the awkward position of breaking that secrecy or lying to him. If Jack just showed up in town though? Well, he’d have gotten there all on his own and the town was on the maps. For all the security around the research facility, the town couldn’t be completely classified. Heck, he could have simply driven into it by accident if he _had_ been lost!

His delinquent daughter was still mocking his sense of direction as he started folding everything away, so he ran a hand through his hair and turned to look in the back of the car, trying to keep his voice even.

“Uh, I thought that instead of driving all night, we could stop for a bit – provided you’re not going to immediately run away again. Nathan just moved up near here and I figured we could crash with him overnight.” 

Zoe turned away, scoffing “Nathan. Of course.”

Now Jack was confused. His daughter had been enthusiastic when she’d first met the man she’d termed his “new mysterious lover,” and she’d never seemed to mind when Nathan’s in-town visits overlapped with Jack’s custody weekends. He swore sometimes the two of them ganged up on him in their teasing. And two weeks ago when he’d told her about Nathan’s proposal, she’d seemed genuinely excited. She had even said he’d be “pretty cool” as a step-father – high praise indeed from a moody teenager! So what was this about?

Jack was sure he had a baffled look on his face, but Zoe continued to glare in the opposite direction and crossed her arms.

“Zoe, what is going on here? I thought you liked Nathan!” Looking at her more shrewdly, he guessed, “Does whatever this is have anything to do with why you ran away?” Drawing on his experience in interrogating hardened criminals, Jack gazed steadily at her, waiting for her to crack.

“You’re moving!” she finally burst out. “You’re marrying _Nathan_ and you’re moving away. Probably up here I guess. I suppose it doesn’t matter anyway, it’s not like I ever get to see you outside of occasional weekends, and I have to show up at your apartment myself to get you to even take me sometimes! Because of course your work always comes first. Except now, _for him_ , you’re putting it second!”

Zoe had gotten progressively more worked up throughout her rant, while Jack’s eyes had just gotten wider and his mouth had dropped open.

For a moment, he could do no more than sputter. “Zoe?!... What?!... This… I…” This was all _way_ out of left field as far as he was concerned. “Wait, where did you even hear about the moving thing?”

“I heard you telling Mom.” Her glare was barely covering the hurt in her eyes.

“Zoe…” He sighed again, shaking his head. He hated talking about his emotions (a problem Abby had complained about, although it was a trait he now shared with Nathan) – but this was his daughter. _His daughter who didn’t think he wanted her._ The ‘I’m a failure as a father’ feeling was hitting his stomach again. But apparently _he_ was the reason she’d run away, and if for no other reason, he had to make sure that didn’t happen again. He took another breath.

“I want to make one thing clear before we discuss anything else. You are my _daughter_ , and I will _always_ love you. And neither Nathan nor the Marshals nor your running away is going to change that.

“Yes, I’m marrying Nathan, but he’s adding to our family; he’s not replacing you. As for the moving thing… I don’t know yet.” He held up a hand at her triumphant look. “I have thought about maybe trying to move up here, but Nathan’s also talked about moving to L.A. We haven’t decided anything yet. 

“ _Either way, you were going to be part of that equation._ If you still wanted to live with your mom during the school year, then maybe you could stay with me for the entire summer and Christmas breaks or something. I hadn’t discussed it with you yet, because we haven’t actually made any decisions.”

Zoe’s quiet “Oh,” was a little sniffly, and without a second thought Jack got out of the car and unlocked the back cage. In a flash, Zoe was in his arms and it was like she’d reverted back to when she was six and she’d thought her daddy could save her from everything bad in the world.

After they’d both calmed down, he leaned back to look at her seriously. “I know you were mad at me, but no running away again. If I hadn’t found you…” His fingers clenched on her arms.

“Yeah, Dad. Yelling and crying fest first, without the running away. Got it.”

Deciding that was as much seriousness as he was going to get currently, Jack turned to the second question. “So, are we crash-landing at Nathan’s or do you want to keep going and find a hotel later?” Now more than ever, he really wanted to see his fiancé, but if Zoe was still upset he’d wait on that for now and just call Nathan later tonight.

Cocking her head suddenly, she looked up at him. “You haven’t told him we’re coming?”

“Nope, and he hates surprises as much as me.” Jack’s unrepentant grin was met with a twin.

And because Jack was now reasonably sure she wasn’t going to run away again – and because Zoe would never forgive him for embarrassing her in front of all of Nathan’s neighbors – he even let her move up to the front seat.

********

Nathan was annoyed. He had only been back in Eureka for two weeks and he had spent much of it trying to clean up King’s messes. Warren King had been fired for incompetence, but as Nathan slowly pieced through the haphazard records of his predecessor he still wasn’t sure if the former director had only been guilty of gross negligence or if he had actually been involved in more shady activities. There were a number of discrepancies in the requisition files and Nathan had been trying to quietly conduct a full inventory and audit of all projects and departments, particularly in Section 5.

Now he’d been called out into the woods because of a new disaster, with a partially-temporally-displaced trailer and a dead dog. This was followed by Fargo telling him that one of the Syntek chips was missing from Section 5. It couldn’t even be laid solely at King’s feet, since it seemed to be a recent disappearance. Someone with high clearance was almost certainly involved, although an electromagnetic disruption had been used to deliberately tamper with the security system and knock out any camera evidence. 

Sheriff Cobb of course chose to wander over during the tail end of Fargo’s report, and Nathan was forced to deflect his questions since he did not want to bring in law enforcement until he had a handle on the situation and had completed his secret audit. The sheriff, however, was demanding that all of G.D. be shut down until this current crisis had been resolved. Did he have any idea how many sensitive projects would be lost or damaged by being temporarily halted? Not to mention the number that could become volatile without constant monitoring.

He did not have time for this! He still had dozens of files he was working through to catch up on current projects, and had been hoping to finish a large enough chunk to be able to reward himself with a few hours to work on his _own_ projects this evening. Instead, he was stuck out here surrounded by idiots who kept trying to make his life more difficult.

He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and fished it out to find a text from Jack.

_**Was in the neighborhood and decided to stop by – mind if Zoe and I crash with you tonight?** _

What? Jack was supposed to be flying up to Portland in two weeks, but last time Nathan checked, the paperwork hadn’t gone through yet to get clearance for Jack to visit Eureka. In fact, he had never even mentioned Eureka by name to Jack.

_**You’re in Oregon?** _

The response was swift.

_**Ths is Zoe – Dad driving** _

_**Eureka is rlly weird – an 8-yrold w/ a quantum physics bk?** _

_**Wheres yr house anywy?** _

Blinking, Nathan absorbed the brief barrage – and the horrendous text speak. He was still curious how Jack and Zoe found their way to Eureka, but he’d interrogate Jack later. Apparently he would not be getting any science done this evening though.

Despite himself, he felt his shoulders relax a little. Jack – and Zoe too, to some extent – had the miraculous ability to calm Nathan down by his very presence. He still regretted the lost science time, but was willing to accept the tradeoff of unexpected time with his fiancé. He was pretty sure Jack would be more than willing to help Nathan work off all his stress in a mutually satisfying way.

As he texted his address to Zoe, he tuned back in to the conversation taking place behind him as Deputy Lupo mentioned something about a U.S. Marshal nosing around. Apparently Jack had been busy since arriving in Eureka and had managed to both annoy and impress the local sheriff’s office while finagling his way into a crime scene.

When he heard how Jack took less than five minutes to find the missing boy for whom the intrepid sheriff had spent an hour organizing a whole search party he could barely restrain his smirk. After a moment, he decided _what the hell_ and smirked anyway. Sheriff Cobb might be very dedicated to his job and had probably been a good soldier, but he did not think outside the box as often as was necessary in a town like Eureka. While his fiancé sometimes had the same distressing law enforcement tendency to see things in black and white _(and how had Nathan managed to fall in love with a man like that again?)_ , Jack’s leaps of intuition meant he, at least, didn’t as regularly fall into the same trap of focusing solely on the most obvious answer.

Impatience growing, Nathan forcefully wrapped up the discussion with a demand to both Fargo and Cobb to be informed of any further incidents. Returning to his car, he headed home to meet up with his future husband and step-daughter while thoughts and ideas ticked around in his brain.


	2. Settling In and Belonging

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, yes, I am continuing this to eventually cover the whole arc of the pilot episode. No guarantees on update schedule, but I am going to finish it.

They sat parked in Nathan's driveway for almost fifteen minutes before the scientist showed up. Even though Zoe had somewhat cleared the air with her dad earlier, things still felt awkward. Her dad’s life was changing and she didn't know where she fit into it anymore. She needed a little time to herself after four hours trapped in the car – and her dad probably wanted to tell Nathan everything that had happened, which she _really_ did not want to be around for. 

Therefore as soon as Nathan unlocked the front door, she breezed past demanding, “So which room's mine?” and was nearly all the way up the stairs before she heard his voice calling back directions.

She headed to what she presumed was the guest bedroom ready to flop herself down on the bed, but paused after opening the door. The bed had a purple comforter on it, and not just any purple comforter but one identical to the one in her bedroom at her dad's apartment. On the surface, it still looked like the spare bedroom she had been expecting. It had a simple furniture set of bed, nightstand, dresser, and desk. Looking more closely however, the furniture style was a little more… _funky_ than what she had briefly seen in the living room. Had Nathan done all of this for her? When she’d asked which room was hers it was deflection and bravado, but this room actually seemed like it might be _hers_.

Zoe wasn’t sure what to do with that. 

Finally flopping on the bed, she stared up at the ceiling. She was starting to feel guilty for being so angry about Nathan earlier. Would her dad be telling him everything she’d said? Growling, she rolled over and punched the pillow. Why couldn’t they just have _talked_ to her? Oh her dad had said they would have discussed it with her later, but she’d heard that line before. She wasn’t a little kid anymore – she should get some say in her own life. 

She hadn’t really wanted to run away, she was just sick of feeling like she had no control. When her parents had divorced, Zoe had been furious at both of them. At her dad for leaving and at her mom for kicking him out. They had gotten so busy fighting, both before and after the divorce, that she had started acting out to get attention. But that only seemed to make it worse as they were then arguing over her behavior and whose fault it was. So she started running away.

Things settled down a little after each of her parents started dating again, although she hadn’t realized until that point that there had been a part of her that had still hoped that her parents would get back together so that they could all be a family again.

It was still nice though when her dad started making more of a priority to spend quality time with her on his custody weekends, and her mom was more gracious in letting him have that time. It wasn’t perfect, but Zoe was adjusting and was happy with the time she got to spend with her dad.

Each of her parents seemed happier too. They argued with each other less when they had to interact, and paid her more attention without her having to act out.

Zoe wasn’t as big a fan of Dave, her mom’s current boyfriend, but she did genuinely like Nathan most of the time. He made her dad happy (and less uptight), but more importantly, he never acted like she was in the way even though she knew he didn’t get to spend much time with her dad. In fact, he’d made himself scarce on occasion when he thought father and daughter needed time alone. He listened to her and made an effort to get to know her. Unlike Dave who kept making Thai coconut curry – despite the fact that Zoe _hated_ coconut, and told him so every time he made it. (Of course, her mom always said she shouldn’t complain when someone had gone to the effort of cooking something special.)

She wondered if Nathan could cook. He was just as much of a workaholic as her dad, whose cooking abilities were limited to things like pasta or baked chicken. Or grilling outside. Zoe remembered when she was little and her dad would make hamburgers at least twice a week (or chicken or steak or shish-kebobs). She always used to go outside to watch him while he grilled, even if she had to sit well back from the barbecue because he claimed she was too young to not get hurt. She wondered if he’d think she was old enough now to actually help. Her dad's current apartment didn't allow grills, so it had been years since they'd done that together.

 _Darn_ , all this thinking about food was making her hungry as well as nostalgic.

As if summoned, she heard a knock on her door. Zoe was a little surprised to see it was Nathan, although she could hear a shower running faintly in the background which explained her father’s whereabouts.

“Spaghetti okay for dinner? I’m afraid I haven’t restocked on groceries for a while.”

Despite the simple question, he had come into the room to lean against her desk. He looked a little cautious – which probably meant her dad had already told him about her whole rant in the car earlier. 

“Spaghetti’s fine.” He was still watching her. “Uh, did you need something else…?”

Nathan finally turned away, but only to glance idly around the bedroom. Was she supposed to thank him for the room? Should she ask him about the purple comforter? But he was already standing up again and sticking his hands in his pockets.

“You’re a package deal, you know that?” 

Confused at his non-sequitur, Zoe tilted her head in her best teenage I-have-no-idea-what-you’re-talking-about look.

The scientist quirked a smile, but continued. “Marrying Jack. He would dump me in an instant if I ever asked him to give you up – not that I ever would. I do actually enjoy having you around. Especially as backup on Jack’s poor clothing choices, even if you do share his unfortunate tendency towards watching people chase a ball around on a field.”

Zoe rolled her eyes at his teasing. “And why are you telling me this? Attempting to get in my good books?”

“More like convincing you to give Eureka – and me – a chance, while I work on persuading Jack to move up here. For instance, you might be interested to know that Eureka probably has the best school system in the country.”

The teenager scoffed. “If you’re trying to make me like this weird backwater town, _school_ is not the way to do it. Especially not if the whole school is full of supernerds.”

He just hummed noncommittally. “I think you’re a lot smarter than you let on – or than your current grades might suggest.” Affronted that her dad had been sharing her grades, she opened her mouth but was cut off by Nathan. “Telsa High has access to some of the most cutting edge technology in the world. I’m just saying you might find you enjoy the challenge.”

Clearly that was not all he was saying. He had just stated that his long-term goals involved both Jack and Zoe moving to Eureka. On the one hand, it was nice that she was included in this picture. Nathan even seemed to be pushing for her dad to get a larger portion of custody – which would be awesome. On the other hand, he was making long-term plans with minimal input from either of them – which was precisely what Zoe had been pissed at her dad about earlier. Her dad _had_ always complained that Nathan was a huge control freak, but Zoe had always found this hard to believe since her dad was the biggest control freak she knew. Maybe there was some truth to it after all. (How they both made it work in their relationship though she had no idea.)

********

When Nathan finally called her down to dinner 20 minutes later, her dad was sitting at the table wearing a t-shirt and sweats that were clearly a size too large – which she guessed made sense considering he had probably run after her without packing a travel bag. She felt a twinge of guilt again, although the underlining frustration and hurt hadn’t completely gone away despite all the talking things out. Her dad at least seemed much calmer and was engaging in his normal banter with Nathan. 

Nathan was working to convince the pair to stay for the whole weekend, not just the one night. Her dad didn’t seem to need too much persuasion, although he did at least turn to ask her and said he’d have to check with her mom as well. Zoe belatedly realized her father’s calmness probably meant he hadn’t found out about all the details of her runaway attempt yet, or there undoubtedly would have been a second round of yelling and punishments. He would also probably be insisting on dragging her straight back to L.A. first thing in the morning.

Deciding that forbearance was the better part of valor in this case, she kept mostly quiet and let the two men carry the conversation. 

Eventually the discussion turned to the crime scene her dad had elbowed his way into earlier. They had just been entering town when they had noticed the mass of people canvasing a field. Recognizing a search party in progress, her dad the Marshal of course had to stop and see if he could help. Zoe was a little pissed at that, since hadn’t they just talked about how she always felt like he was choosing work over her? She knew saying that during a crisis was useless though since her father had a one-track mind when it came to saving people.

Refusing to sit idly in the car, she had followed to see what was going on – although she had stopped before the tarped off area. Her dad of course hadn’t, and she’d smirked when she saw a woman notice and go after him. Unfortunately she hadn’t been able to witness the outcome of that little turf war.

Currently Nathan was pressing for more details about how her father had outdone the local law enforcement and found the missing boy so quickly. (He didn’t seem to have much respect for the sheriff and was instead gloating about his fiancé’s superior skills). Her dad in turn was asking Nathan pointed questions about what exactly had been the cause of the accident (so it hadn’t just been a missing person’s case?), which the scientist was deflecting with phrases like “classified” and “un-signed non-disclosure agreements.”

Realizing he wasn’t going to get anything more out of the scientist, her dad finally re-directed the conversation. “So, I may have pissed off the deputy. And your D.O.D. liaison, Agent Blake. I didn’t make the connection until after, but is she…?” 

“…my ex-wife? Yes.” Nathan looked a little uncomfortable.

“Oh, uh, that’s going to make things awkward. Although I guess I’m glad I didn’t figure it out ‘til after?” Her dad had his nose scrunched up and wasn’t making eye contact with Nathan.

 _Of course this would hit his insecurities._ Wait, which one was Agent Blake anyway? Zoe remembered the kickass deputy who had been corralling all of the search party, but who was… It might have been the woman who’d followed after her dad under the tarp. Now she really wished she’d been a fly on the wall for that confrontation. 

Agent Blake had seemed to be a competent and beautiful woman – which made sense considering Nathan had been married to her. That was probably not going to help her father’s romantic insecurities however. She just hoped neither he nor Nathan screwed anything up because of this.

…which probably proved again that she was not as upset over her dad’s forthcoming re-marriage as she’d proclaimed earlier.

********

Nathan woke up the next morning feeling content with the world and more relaxed than he’d felt since coming back to Eureka. He turned to look at the blond head snoring into his shoulder – which was, admittedly, not Jack’s most attractive angle. But as his eyes roamed possessively over a bare shoulder and curved back, he felt a deep well of satisfaction. Everything in his life was finally coming together again.

He was back in Eureka, the first place Nathan had ever really felt at home or felt a true sense of community. The many people over the years who have called him heartless would undoubtedly be surprised at just how hard it had been for him to leave for D.C. He knew he couldn’t stay in the same small town after watching his marriage to Allison fall apart, and he didn’t feel it was fair to ask her to move Kevin, but it meant that he had given up more than just his dreams of a family when he left.

Now he’d returned, and he had a new family in Jack and Zoe. He really hoped that they came to love Eureka as much as he did and that he could persuade them to move here permanently, Zoe included. That they could make a home here together.

Despite all the stress and the craziness, his inner scientist thrived on the challenges and breakthroughs at G.D. Being director involved more administrative duties than he would perhaps like, but it allowed him to have a hand in projects across all disciplines. He could also admit he enjoyed the ego boost of being in charge of so much knowledge and potential. While he’d always have been tempted by an offer to return to Eureka, being awarded the directorship was simply too enticing a chance to pass up. 

Unfortunately, he knew Jack also loved his job as a U.S. Marshal – and was very good at it. He hoped that as he introduced Jack to the town they might find a niche that would suit his talents so that Nathan wouldn’t be asking his fiancé to be the one sacrificing everything, (because he knew his own and Jack’s marriages had both failed in part for being unable to change and give up the part of their careers they loved, and he wouldn’t ask that of Jack). If not, if Jack couldn’t find a job he would enjoy, well, then at least Nathan would be forfeiting Eureka this time to gain a family, rather than to lose them both.

He still found it amusing that Jack had found his own way to Eureka, despite all the secrecy. One of the things he loved the most about his marshal was Jack’s ability to surprise him. Nevertheless, Nathan felt both anticipation and trepidation at formally introducing Jack and Zoe around town. The wary and nervous part was because he had not told Allison he had started dating again, let alone gotten engaged, and that would no doubt be an awkward conversation. Especially since some might judge that he had moved on very quickly. In addition, Allison had always been the one with social skills in their marriage and had been the one to stay in Eureka, so anyone taking sides was assuredly not going to be taking his.

On the other hand, he wanted to show Jack off as this amazing, funny, sexy, kind man – who belonged to Nathan. There was also a petty part of him that wanted to shout, _‘Look at me, look at my shiny new family. I still found someone to love me; I’m not hopeless or heartless.’_ This was not exactly a sentiment he ever intended to share with Jack. Though come to think of it, Jack had seemed to get some vindictive pleasure out of introducing Nathan on the one memorable occasion he had met Dr. Abby Carter. Of course, Nathan’s possessive side had come out full force upon meeting his lover’s ex-wife, leading him to blatantly demonstrate all of his superior qualifications. Hmm, that… probably did not bode good things for Jack and Allison’s next meeting, considering Jack had his own jealousy and insecurity issues.

A soft snort next to him broke his morning reflections, and he refocused to see Jack blinking the sleep out of his blue eyes. Nathan did love those eyes. That didn’t stop him from promptly having Jack close them again as he leaned in for a lazy good morning kiss.

_Briiing. Briiing. Briiing._

Unfortunately, before things could become more interesting, they were interrupted by the insistent ringing of his mobile. And a phone call this early in the morning was rarely ever good news. 

It wasn’t. There’d been another incident and Sheriff Cobb had been injured. _Damnit._

********

An hour later, Nathan had finished reviewing all of the data from Cobb’s house and was in conference with Allison and Deputy Lupo. Normally Sheriff Cobb would have been there as well, but he was still laid up in the infirmary. That was in fact one of the many things they were discussing. They needed to track down what was causing the anomalies and discover a way to prevent further escalation. Unfortunately, while Nathan and Henry tackled the science side of things, Lupo was left alone trying to do all the fieldwork as well as keeping the town safe.

When the discussion had started going in circles for the third time, he finally posited the thought that had occurred to him from the moment he had realized the seriousness of Cobb’s injuries. “If Deputy Lupo needs assistance, then the simplest answer is bringing in someone else to help.”

Allison stared at him. “Nathan, are you saying you actually want to call Colonel Briggs for backup?”

His mouth twisted in distaste. “I wasn’t talking about Briggs. We already have someone else in town who’s more than qualified to help out if we read him in.”

“You’re talking about the U.S. Marshal? Carter, I think. Is he even still in town? He said he was just passing through – although where he was passing through _to_ out here I don’t know.” Allison’s eyes were narrowed in question, and Nathan wondered if she was still annoyed at Jack for trespassing and making everyone else feel incompetent.

“He is still in town. He should be at Café Diem ordering breakfast right now.”

“And how would you know this if you’ve been at G.D. for the last hour?” Lupo finally cut into the conversation.

Nathan just smiled, “Jack’s my fiancé. He came to Eureka looking for me, and I was planning to meet him for breakfast as soon as we finished up here.” He straightened his cuffs and glanced at his watch.

Lupo’s eyebrow rose, but Allison looked completely shocked. “Fiancé? You’re getting married again? How long…” Abruptly switching gears, she instead forcefully remarked, “I don’t recall seeing the permission forms for him to visit and for you to disclose information about Eureka.”

“Yes, I’m getting re-married. I met Jack when he was on temporary assignment in D.C. a while back. And for the record, I didn’t tell Jack anything about Eureka. All he knew was that I moved somewhere near Portland; he figured out the rest himself. After all, he does do this for a living, and, as he pointed out, Eureka is on the map.” He decided to keep to himself Jack’s comment about how they should have chosen a more inconspicuous name if they really wanted to stay unobtrusive.

Allison was still looking angry; he wondered which aspect of their current circumstances was annoying her the most.

“I should not have to remind you that being involved with the director does not automatically give him access to classified G.D. information.”

Nathan just rolled his eyes. “Our relationship is probably the only thing that has kept him from already poking his nose in further. He's not an idiot. He knows something bigger is going on and that it likely involves classified D.O.D. research. So far he's only been nagging me for answers – which I haven't given – and not going out there and trying to find them himself.

“If this starts endangering and killing people, he's going to get himself involved one way or another. We already decided we were short staffed; I don't see why this needs further debate. Read him in and have him sign everything, then let him do what he's trained to do.”

It took another twenty minutes to finally persuade them. 

Lupo of course felt insulted that she wasn’t deemed capable of handling this on her own – even though they had all agreed earlier that this was beyond the scope of their normal Eureka catastrophes. While she seemed reluctantly respectful for the skills Jack had displayed, she clearly didn’t like a stranger encroaching on her turf.

Allison was the larger hurdle. As the D.O.D. liaison, technically it was her call and her responsibility to read someone in, and while he could go over her head, it might smack rather loudly of bias and nepotism. In the end, however, Allison had been swayed by the lack of other viable options.

She still insisted on following Nathan back to Café Diem in order to have Jack sign the non-disclosure paperwork as soon as possible.

********

Vincent had heard rumors about the strangers in town. He'd even received separate accounts from Sheriff Cobb, Jo, Henry, and Fargo (who hadn’t even been present) about what had happened when Brian Perkins went missing. Each of those conversations, and all of the subsequent retellings, had ended with speculation about what had drawn a U.S. Marshal to Eureka.

Fargo was convinced he was a government spy and trying to get information on Global research. Henry and the Sheriff thought he might have simply been lost or passing through, while Jo pointed out that he had a teenager with him so was unlikely to be on duty. A family vacation perhaps... in a random, isolated corner of Oregon? 

Maybe they had family in Eureka? No one had claimed an association yet, but sadly not everyone came into Café Diem every day, so it was possible they were visiting one of the more reclusive scientists.

Vincent was chatting (and speculating again) with Henry and Dr. Reeves when the objects of their curiosity walked in the door.

The marshal was remarkably average on first glance. Not too tall, blond hair, blue eyes, and wearing an MIT t-shirt that seemed a size too large. The teenager was almost definitely his daughter. Not only did they share physical attributes, but the bickering as they entered was clearly filial.

Keeping his curiosity at bay for a little longer, Vincent straightened up to address the newcomers. “Welcome to Café Diem. Can I help you?”

“Yeah, just getting breakfast. My fiancé is supposed to be meeting us here later.”

 _Ha, so he did have a familial connection!_ It's a pity the question hadn't actually been marked down in his betting book. One half of his brain started running through eligible candidates even as he escorted the pair towards the back booths.

“Of course. Just take a seat wherever you like. So is your fiancé what brought you both to Eureka?” Vincent could hear how the café became a little quieter as many idle ears listened for the answer. (As usual, Café Diem proved the best place to substantiate rumors.)

“Well Nathan didn't actually tell me about Eureka, since, you know, the whole classified thing. But I was passing through Oregon and thought I'd stop by, so I figured it out.” He shrugged self-deprecatingly.

 _Wait a minute..._ “Nathan Stark?!”

This time it was the younger blonde who cut in. “Ugh, yes. Old people in love. So where are the menus? I'm starved.”

“Zoe!”

The chef explained the lack of menus and took their orders, even while internally reeling. Practically speaking, Dr. Stark was a logical candidate to have a new fiancé no one had heard of, since he _had_ been living outside of Eureka for a while.

 _Ooh, did Dr. Blake know about this yet?_ According to the earlier rumors, Allison had already met the marshal, but surely not with this added context.

As to the marshal, he would not have pegged him as Dr. Stark's type at all. Oh he was attractive, Vincent definitely saw the boy-next-door appeal. But Stark was the sort of man who enjoyed lox with arugula, cream cheese, and fresh dill on toasted sun-dried tomato bread for breakfast. The marshal was eating pancakes and bacon smothered in syrup and ketchup.

The mysterious marshal and his daughter were almost finished eating when the door opened and the café grew suddenly silent as Dr. Stark himself appeared… followed immediately by Dr. Blake.


	3. Pancakes and Problems

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ha, finally! Sorry for the delay, but this chapter was somewhat uncooperative. I think I finally managed to wrangle it into submission though. Enjoy!

Jack had been a little on edge all morning. Oh the day had started off great – waking up in Nathan’s arms pretty much guaranteed that. But then they had been interrupted and Nathan had been called in to work. _(And wasn’t it weird to be on the opposite side of that; Abby never really had therapy emergencies outside of business hours.)_ He had thought about following Nathan into the shower, but decided he’d wait and take his time once his fiancé had left. Instead he sat against the headboard and watched as his scientist rushed through his morning routine. Of course even in a hurry, Nathan was still impeccably dressed and groomed by the time he was ready to leave, had pulled out some more spare clothes for Jack, and had made plans to meet Jack and Zoe later for breakfast.

As he sat in Café Diem an hour later, Jack tried to keep from bouncing his leg while not focusing on the two things that were causing his edginess. Well, okay, there were three reasons, but a lack of morning sex merely gave him some excess nervous energy, it didn’t cause active worry like the other two. The main concern, of course, was that any emergency needing the presence of the director of a top-secret D.O.D. weird-science facility probably meant trouble. Jack had manfully tried to keep from badgering Nathan with too many questions this morning, but he was worried that whatever had taken a bite out of the back of that trailer had struck again. _(Oh god, he really hoped they weren't playing à la Jurassic Park where that could have been a literal bite. The edges looked burnt though, so hopefully not.)_

The other thing he was avoiding thinking about was that Nathan was probably with his ex-wife right now. He had known Nathan’s ex lived in the town the scientist had just moved back to, but knowing and seeing were two different things. He also hadn’t realized she was in a position where the two would probably have to interact a lot. It wasn’t that he didn't trust his fiancé or that he suspected any cheating, he was just irrationally terrified that he couldn’t measure up. That Nathan would look at his beautiful, and likely brilliant, ex-wife and ask himself why he was settling for Jack. He knew it was ridiculous, but it made him desperate to prove himself or to simply hang on to Nathan and distract him enough that he wasn’t even looking at _her_.

Sighing, he stood up suddenly, startling Zoe. The nosy chef had only just taken their orders, so he should have at least ten minutes before their food was ready, right? “Hey, I’m going to run my suit down to the dry cleaners while we’re waiting. You okay?” 

Maybe stretching his legs for a minute would ease some of his tension. Plus it would be nice to have his own clean clothes again, even if it was his work suit. He looked down at the rolled up and belted jeans he was wearing… yeah, not exactly the best for making a first impression to Nathan’s neighbors, although it was possibly helping with his own jealousy and insecurities to be literally wearing their relationship on his sleeve. 

As he walked the two blocks there and then back again, Jack couldn’t help but look around himself in bemusement. So far, Eureka seemed sort of half small town charm and half science fair. There was a guy over there with some kind of hovering bicycle – _hovercycle?_ , and was that a robotic dog? And another lady was using some sort of device that was… nope, he had no idea what she was doing actually. 

He stopped in front a statue, wondering whether it was some revered scientist or something. The simple stone fountain seemed more on the small town side of things than science project.

“Archimedes.”

Startled, Jack looked down at the young boy in front of him as he explained something about a Greek mathematician and the word ‘Eureka.’ The boy was using sidewalk chalk to write out equations that looked equally as complex as some of the papers he’d seen lying around at Nathan’s place – and his fiancé was an acknowledged genius. Jack had a feeling that the longer he stayed in Eureka, the more he’d end up feeling like an idiot. Then again, that was a feeling he had gotten used to anyway from dating Dr. I’ve-got-a-Nobel-prize-and-three-PhDs Stark, when Nathan would give him that exasperated look of ‘you’re being a moron, but I love you anyway.’

“When’s your birthday?”

Thought process derailed again, Jack answered automatically, curious to see where the kid was going with this. After being told he was a Tuesday – just like the kid – the pieces finally clicked into place. This had to be Kevin Blake, Nathan’s former stepson. Jack didn’t know all that many details about the boy beyond the autism, but he did remember a story from Nathan about being called ‘Friday’ for years before finally being upgraded to ‘Dad.’ (Nathan had also been crushed to be been downgraded to ‘Friday’ again when things had gotten bad towards the end of his marriage.) The other thing he remembered about that story, however, was that date-naming people was something Kevin did for people he liked or trusted. Given they’d only just met, Jack was almost a little touched.

“Well, I’m glad to meet another Tuesday then.” Jack was studying the boy a little more carefully now that he’d placed his name. Nathan had said that Kevin’s mind worked in unexpected ways, and he wondered if there was more to this conversation than it appeared. 

Except that the conversation was apparently over, since the boy had turned away and was engrossed in his equations once again. Shaking his head, Jack smiled at the kid and decided to head back to Zoe.

“Anyway, I should go. Good luck on your math, fellow Tuesday.” 

Kevin wore a hint of a smile but otherwise continued to ignore him, so Jack shrugged and started walking back towards the café, albeit with a larger bounce in his step than before. 

The conversation with Kevin and the absolutely amazing pancakes had put Jack in a much better mood by the time the café door opened and Nathan finally walked in. The welcoming smile on Jack’s face faded a bit, however, when he saw Agent Blake following behind. She was sporting a tight smile, and her annoyance looked more genuinely angry than it had yesterday when Jack had interfered with their crime scene.

When Nathan dropped into the seat next to him, Jack limited himself to a quick kiss hello rather than the caveman routine he wanted to pull. Blake’s face tightened even further, but she still slipped into the booth next to Zoe to join them.

“Agent Blake.”

“Marshal.” 

Both greetings were decidedly neutral, and Jack was still puzzling out why on earth the woman had decided to join them unannounced, when Nathan cut in. “Jack, there’s a situation, and we’re a little short-handed. Sheriff Cobb was injured this morning and I was hoping you’d be willing to step in.” He glanced over at his ex-wife. “Once you sign some confidentiality agreements, we can get you caught up on what’s been happening.”

Nathan was keeping his voice low, and it didn’t take a genius to understand why. In the short time that Jack had spent eating his breakfast, he’d already made the realization that Café Diem was gossip central for Eureka. Not the best place for classified discussions or rousing panic.

“Of course I’ll help. But first…”

“Dad, you said you weren’t going to be on duty this weekend! Just you and me. And Nathan.” Zoe’s hissed words broke his concentration from where he’d already fallen into case-mode. _Shit._ He had promised her that, and had already broken it once to help find Brian Perkins.

“Zoe…” He was not sure what to tell her when this was a promise he always kept breaking. He could already visualize the cold shoulder and teenage ‘Whatever’ he’d receive as a response to any excuse he tried to give.

Instead, Nathan reached across the table to take Zoe’s hand. “Zoe, I know you don’t want to hear this, but I need his help right now. Something bad is happening, and I think we both know that whether I called him in on this or not, Jack would never stand to the side when people might be hurt.” As he calmly explained the necessity of Jack having to break his promise, he emphasized the seriousness of the situation but was careful not to scare her. While Jack would have liked to be the one to reassure her himself, it always made his heart melt a little to see Nathan interacting with Zoe like this.

When Zoe finally nodded, albeit with an unhappy look on her face, Jack glanced up to catch the surprised look on Agent Blake's face as she stared at Nathan. With the memories of the scientist’s stories about Kevin still fresh on his mind, Jack wasn’t sure why she looks so astonished, except that parenting a teenage girl was probably a little different than a young boy who didn’t interact normally with the world. 

Regardless, he decided he needed to take charge of the conversation and get them back on track. Plus, he was itching to know what was really going on. The whole respecting-that-Nathan’s-work-was-classified thing was a lot harder to deal with when it started taking the shape of a case.

“Right. Now that that’s settled. We should probably move this discussion to a more appropriate venue where you can tell me exactly what’s going on around here. Nathan, you can ask for your breakfast to go, and I’ll drop Zoe back off at the house.” He shot a quelling look across the table when it looked like Zoe might protest, and she subsided with a scowl as she slouched with her arms across her chest. 

Nathan of course denied needing anything, but Jack had dated him long enough to know how the scientist got lost in genius-mode and stopped paying attention to the needs suffered by lesser mortals. Jack was a workaholic, but he was still a workaholic who required food, so he didn’t quite understand how Nathan could simply forget to eat. The marshal was a firm believer that ignoring your body’s needs could lead to stupid mistakes. (Also, a hungry, non-caffeinated Nathan tended to be even more of a bastard than usual, so there was that too.) Luckily, the same unimpressed expression he’d just used on Zoe managed to work on Nathan too, and their identical scowls (ie. pouts) were hilarious.

In the end, the Jack went with Blake by himself to get started on the necessary paperwork, while his reluctant fiancé remained to order a quick breakfast and bring Zoe home. Nathan made them promise to wait at the sheriff’s station until he got back so that all three of them could head to the top-secret facility together.

Ten minutes later, Jack was staring at the large slab of papers in front of him, hoping this wasn’t some sort revenge as part of the weird, multi-level territorial dispute he had going on with Agent… no, _Dr._ Blake. He’d already insisted on a slight detour as he’d stopped to pick up his freshly dry-cleaned suit on the way to the station. She had looked torn between complaining about the delay and being glad he would no longer be walking around in her ex-husband’s clothes. Now that he was going to be working in an official capacity though, there was no way he was going to do it in rolled-up jeans and his fiancé’s t-shirt.

He picked up the pen and flipped to the back of the slab where the page had been tagged for his signature, then paused. Reluctantly, he lowered his hand and turned back to the front page, trying (mostly unsuccessfully) to skim the dense legalese.

“What are you doing, Marshal? We are on a bit of a time crunch, and you’ve already delayed us once.”

Jack hesitated; she was right, but still, “Nathan would never let me live it down if I signed something without at least attempting to read it first.”

Blake eyed him with an unreadable expression for a minute, before a wry smile crossed her lips. “That would be very Nathan,” she agreed. “Here, section one is just a standard…” Quickly pointing out all the most important sections, it took less than two minutes for her to summarize the entire document. Jack was actually a little impressed. He looked at her, looked at the pile of papers, then shrugged and signed. _Hopefully this wouldn’t come back to bite him in the ass._

“So, while we’re waiting for Nathan, can you tell me more about how Sheriff Cobb was injured? Was it tied to whatever damaged the back of the Perkins’ trailer? Have there been any other incidents? Also, do we have any leads yet on what might be causing this, and when it’s going to hit next?”

This might not be the sort of case Jack normally dealt with, but never let it be said that he’d backed down from a problem.

********

Jack’s reaction to G.D. was hilarious, and Nathan was glad he’d insisted he be there to show the marshal around. When they’d entered the lobby and Jack had received his first glimpse of just how impressive G.D. really was, he’d actually come to a complete stop, eyes wide, and murmured, “Holy shit.”

Of course when Nathan had smirked at him, Jack just rolled his eyes. “You really are the king of the nerds, aren’t you?”

Now they were in the lab where everything affected by the temporal-displacement had been moved – the Perkins trailer, the trees and cows that Taggart had found, and some items from Cobb’s living room. It was the first time Nathan had directly been able to witness his fiancé at work, and he was curious to see how Jack’s records on paper (and the stories he’d heard) played out in real life. The fact that this was an arena of science where Jack was clearly way over his head and understood very little of the initial explanation didn't seem to daunt him at all. In fact, that determination was what prevented Nathan from being annoyed at having to re-explain things, or being derisive over the lack of comprehension.

If dating Jack had taught him anything, it was that there were different kinds of intelligence. Without that realization, their relationship never would have moved beyond sex. Luckily, the differences in their knowledge-based intellect were not an impediment to their early dating, and by the time it might have become an issue between them later, Nathan had already learned to appreciate Jack’s fresh perspective on things. (He had also started finding his boyfriend’s bewildered look slightly adorable.)

Actually, since in their relationship Jack was in many ways more of the protector, Nathan had found himself fulfilling the role of the teacher, sharing his love of learning and his burning desire to question the universe. That’s not to say that those blue eyes didn’t glaze over frequently when Nathan started talking science, but whenever he managed to engage Jack’s curiosity it usually led to a variety of delightful reactions – from insightful commentary to simply blowing the blond’s mind.

So watching him here and now was fascinating. Whenever his marshal didn’t understand something (which was a lot), he’d tease it out until he could summarize it back in much simpler analogies. While some of the over-simplifications made Nathan want to roll his eyes, the tenacity was something he admired. 

Jack was also incredibly pushy in questioning _everything_ about being possible contributing factors, including the contents of Nathan’s own research. He might have been offended except that Jack frequently joked about him being a mad scientist who was going to either destroy or rule the world one day, so really it wasn’t a surprise that he would double-check that Nathan wasn’t behind _this_ specific disaster.

Before finally leaving G.D., Nathan dragged Jack along to meet Fargo, who would be the point of contact in the future if he, as the director, was ever unavailable. 

Fargo was in one of the astronomy labs going over one of King’s personal projects that had been left interrupted. (Nathan had ordered him to make an assessment of all of King’s non-Section 5 research.) While listening to Fargo’s report with one ear, Nathan watched out of the corner of his eye as the blond wandered the lab.

Jack was clearly captivated. Not so much by the point-of-origin device of course – that had received Jack’s look of ‘I don’t see the point of this, but I’ll be polite and not say anything’ – but by the giant telescope. Nathan made a mental note to take Jack out to some of the off-site astronomy labs later, if there was time. _(Hopefully, he'd have all the time in the world to show Jack the hidden secrets of Eureka.)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, when I stall out when thinking of a story, I tend to mentally have my main pairing characters start just addressing each other by name, back and forth, hoping it will spawn further conversation or action. Except that repeatedly thinking "Jack", tends to turn into Barbarossa's drawling address to Captain Sparrow, or just as I was writing this, it shifted instead to Captain Hook's address to young Jack in 'Hook'. Either way, not at all the mood I'm going for, even though I'm sure Nathan could rock one hell of a pirate costume.


	4. Escalation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Danger, romance, science... what more could you ask for? Oh right, the end of the story, but we'll get there eventually. In the meantime, enjoy...

As enjoyable as it had been to show off Global Dynamics to Jack, Nathan eventually had to return to his other work and drop his fiancé off at the sheriff’s station to coordinate with Deputy Lupo. Honestly, he would have preferred to continue tracking down the cause of the temporal displacements – the lack of answers was itching at the back of his brain – but without any new leads there was nothing for him to do. So instead he kept himself distracted by burying himself back in the work that been interrupted yesterday when this whole fiasco started. Potential disaster on the horizon or not, the rest of G.D. continued to function as normal and it was his job to ensure that persisted. In fact, it was less than twenty-four hours ago that he was denying Sheriff Cobb’s demands to shut down all of Global. He still had no intention of performing such an imbecilic act, of course, but he decided it might be judicious to check on the safety protocols for some of the more volatile experiments, particularly those in off-site labs. The last thing Eureka needed right now was for the temporal displacement spheres to set off a cascading catastrophic explosion.

There was also the matter of the missing Syntek chip. He had not mentioned this possibility to anyone else, (especially considering that the Syntek prototypes were a classified Section 5 project), but the intended applications of that research made it likely that the missing chip was involved in the current crisis. Maybe answers about his security leak would yield clues on tracking the source of the temporal displacement spheres – that is if he could get anything new from the damaged security tapes. 

Between his ever-present paperwork and physically visiting two dozen labs, Nathan managed to immerse himself in his work and temporarily push the current threat out of his mind. When he finally emerged from behind his computer it was well past one o‘clock, and his phone was ringing.

“Hey there, scientist. Lupo and I haven’t found any new leads yet, so I’m taking a break to check on Zoe and get something to eat. You interested in joining us, or have you already eaten?” Jack’s voice sounded slightly worn down, but still somehow maintained the sunniness that seemed to always radiate from him.

Nathan rubbed a hand over his face. “I haven’t eaten yet, no. Shall I meet you downtown in ten minutes?” Ordinarily he’d just have Fargo bring him something from the cafeteria, but he could probably afford a break right now. He wanted to check on Zoe too, especially considering she’d been angry at him just yesterday for stealing Jack away and now he’d gotten his fiancé involved in this case, more or less abandoning Zoe to her own devices. Having her develop a lasting grudge against him was not how he wanted to start his future marriage.

When he arrived at Café Diem, Zoe was pretending to ignore her father and reading an issue of ‘Popular Science’ while Jack was fending off questions from Vincent about the recent incidents. Amusingly, the chef trailed off when Nathan entered. Apparently he still remembered Nathan’s stance on rumor-mongering and gossiping about classified information. Now that he’d come back as the Director, he had a lot more power to enforce information blackouts if he so chose. He did turn a blind eye to Vincent’s betting pools however – provided no one went searching for insider information where they shouldn’t – and he could see the latest one posted on the wall in the form of a map of all the sites where the temporal displacement spheres had struck. Apparently it had caught Jack’s eye as well, since he’d stepped away from the table to peer at it more closely.

“Hey, the director before you, King, his pattern recognition software was intended to find the starting point for space events, right? Would you be able to run it? Or that Fargo kid? And maybe point it a bit more locally?” Jack had looked back at him in inquiry, but Nathan’s mind had already jumped two steps ahead. He’d have to reconfigure some of the equations to account for a narrower field measurement and…

“I can do it. It might take a bit of time, but…” …but they had a lead, and it was one he never would have considered. If they weren’t in the middle of a public café with Zoe only a few feet away, Nathan would have pressed Jack against the wall and kissed him breathless. Brilliance deserved positive reinforcement after all. Instead, as he confirmed that the map contained no data not already present in the G.D. servers, he settled for teasing his fiancé which quickly devolved into their normal pattern of banter.

“And you thought there was no practical use for the point of origin device.”

“What? I never said that!” Jack was looking adorably indignant, and Nathan again resisted the urge to kiss him.

“You thought it.”

“Maybe, but I never _said_ it.”

Nathan was distracted from making a reply when he noticed the pictures on the walls had begun to rattle, followed by indigo sparks appearing in mid-air. In the half second it took to make the connection that the café was going to be the next spot to experience the temporal displacement, Jack had already leapt into action herding everyone out of the building. (Distantly, he wondered ironically if the café had been one of the spots bet on in the pool.) Nathan’s first priority however was getting Zoe out, before hovering outside the door with Vincent urging everyone to move faster – and farther away. Luckily, most of the patrons had self-preservation instincts and had started fleeing immediately.

Peering back inside, he watched the faux wood of the back wall ripple and disappear in spots, his brain split between scientific fascination at the first-hand data of the phenomenon and terror at how Jack was still standing _inside_ the café reaching for the one person who hadn’t yet started to run. Terror quickly won out as a sphere of blue light encompassed the dawdling patron at the same time as Nathan lunged for Jack and dragged him bodily to throw themselves out the doorway – Jack struggling in his arms all the while.

“NOO! Nathan, I could have reached him. Why did you…” His brave, hardheaded marshal was still trying to stretch back towards the destroyed café, although no trace remained of the man he’d been attempting to save.

“JACK! There was nothing you could have done except get yourself killed too! The temporal displacement bubble touched him before you could have gotten any closer.” 

The scientist knew how much it pained Jack to lose any person on his watch, whether civilian or fellow officer, but he was adamant that his fiancé not blame himself for the idiocy of a man who was too slow to move. He kept his arms locked tightly around Jack’s shoulders – noticing now that his hands were shaking – and only lifted them to include an ashen-faced Zoe in the embrace.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t indulge in the respite for long. Everyone else who had been present in the café was still huddled outside in shock, although at least one person seemed to have gained the presence of mind to call for emergency services. Nathan could also feel the eyes of many of the patrons on them. As he strove to replace his emotionless Director mask, he watched Jack’s face gain a look of stony determination as he spoke. “We need to find the cause of this. _Now._ ” 

Reluctantly, Nathan released the grip on his family. Jack had just given him a lead prior to this latest episode, and he needed to follow it through. 

********

It took three hours for his fiancé to reconfigure King’s program and locate the origin of the deadly time bubbles, and Jack had spent much of that time either pacing the sheriff’s office while Lupo obsessively cleaned an impressive arsenal of guns (which actually felt like a strange sort of bonding moment) or trying to calm the public who had been understandably disturbed by the destruction of Café Diem. When the results finally came in, the starting point for all the destruction appeared to be Walter and Susan Perkins’ house, which – _of course_ , they were linked to the first time bubble sighting. _In fact, hadn’t Walter Perkins been at Café Diem right before the last time bubble hit?_ Jack could have kicked himself for not questioning the Perkins further; apparently all the science in this town was making him forget his investigative roots. Although the look on Nathan’s face as he shared the news made it clear that Jack was not the only one self-recriminating.

It wasn’t until he and Lupo had finished gearing up that Jack realized that the reason Nathan had delivered the news in person might be because he intended to accompany them. Jack prepared himself for a vehement argument – Nathan might be the Director of Global Dynamics and an expert able to diagnose the science behind whatever they might find, but he was still a civilian, and there was no way Jack was allowing a civilian to enter an unknown, unsecured location. As much as his scientist might dislike it right now, Jack was a U.S. Marshal; it was _his_ job to be first in the line of danger.

Before he could even open his mouth to begin his protest, however, Nathan proceeded to take the wind out of his sails by pulling out the tiniest camera Jack had ever seen. _Oh. Surveillance equipment._ That was actually smart. It didn’t stop Jack from pouting slightly as Nathan rigged him up though, since the smirk on his fiancé’s face made it clear that he knew exactly where Jack had been expecting the conversation to go.

(Jack also noticed that while Nathan kept batting Jack’s hands away, insisting on hooking up the camera and mic himself – with an excessive amount of patting things in place – he simply handed the other set to Lupo and left her to her own devices.)

When they reached the house, Susan Perkins met them at the door, highly distressed and rambling about her husband’s recent odd behavior. “I think Walter has gotten himself into trouble, and he’s been trying to fix it.”

_Yeah._ Jack thought in response, _trouble’s a bit of an understatement_. Although he tried not to be uncharitable to family members, he did frequently wish they spoke up sooner when their loved one started acting crazy. Especially when the town simultaneously started experiencing unexplained disasters.

After directing Susan to collect her son and evacuate the house, Jack and Lupo cautiously descended the stairs to the basement only to find a heavy steel door at the bottom locked with some sort of complicated keypad. _Really? Was everyone in this town trying to emulate mad scientist clichés? Did he need to check Nathan’s basement?_

Over the coms, Jack asked Nathan to see if Susan had the code. Then he tried banging on the door calling out for the man who might have intentionally or unintentionally caused the current crisis. “Walter? I know you’re in there. We’re here to help you, but you need to let us in.”

Rather than receiving a reply, the stairwell started to shake ominously. 

“Jack, are you both alright down there? The whole house is shaking, and Susan doesn’t know the code.” Nathan’s voice had taken on the clipped tone he used when he was hiding his emotions.

“I think I can find a key.” Deputy Lupo stated cryptically, before darting up the stairs. Her _key_ turned out to be a giant gun that looked like it belonged in an alien sci-fi thriller, but at this point Jack just prudently stepped back and decided not to prevent her from “unlocking” the door. 

The billowing smoke as the door opened was not a good sign, nor was the large sparking rotating equipment inside. Even more worrisome was the ghostly figure of Walter Perkins floating above and inside the spinning rings. Hoping that they hadn’t lost a second person to this doomsday device, Jack performed a quick survey of the room. Although his first impulse was to shut the machine down as quickly as possible, he still made sure to stop Lupo from shooting the thing immediately – something Nathan concurred with completely. The power output on the equipment appeared massive and they had no idea what the result would be, not to mention the radiation warning signs. They didn’t need the thing to explode or cause another one of those deadly time bubbles in backlash. 

He was in the middle of scanning the camera across the room again to see if Nathan spotted a power source that could be safely shut down, when his lover started swearing over the com.

“Shit, Nathan, what is it?” _Was the thing about to blow?_

The answer to that didn’t come from his scientist however, as the gyroscope-gone-wrong started becoming increasingly volatile, sparking more violently and sending out bright flares of light.

“Go, go, go!” Following the deputy back up the quaking stairs, Jack was not expecting to see a SWAT team in full combat gear – although that might explain Nathan’s sudden foul language.

Outside the house, the street was cordoned off and the lawn was swarming with soldiers. In the center of the chaos, Jack could see a very angry Nathan arguing with Dr. Blake and an army colonel. He approached in time to hear the tail end of the colonel’s speech. “… _was_ under D.O.D. jurisdiction. Now you answer to me.” Even from a few feet away, Jack could see the restrained fury in Nathan’s eyes and smug look on the colonel’s face.

As the colonel strode away, Nathan turned on his ex-wife. “I had everything under control.”

“Nathan, this was protocol. You know the procedures. You should have called them as soon as Charlie Dawkins was killed.”

Jack slowed his approach, not really wanting to get into the middle of their argument – especially as he could see a bit of both sides. Calling in reinforcements and having a large tactical squad at their disposal could be helpful in containing the situation, but only if they were experts trained in this sort of thing and not just stuffed shirts throwing their weight around. Jack had been in enough jurisdiction disputes that he tried to never be _that guy_ , who showed up to take over without listening to the people already stationed on the ground. Unfortunately, it didn’t appear as if the colonel had any such reservations.


	5. Seeking Resolution

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...So it's been a little while. Which is sad, because this chapter had a scene I'd been looking forward to from the beginning - which I kept completely having to rewrite because it didn't quite fit. And then I fell out of the fandom entirely for a while. I hope this lives up to your various expectations though. Only one chapter left!

Things were very tense as the group gathered in the lab at G.D. to examine Walter Perkins’ tachyon accelerator. Allison knew Nathan was still angry with her for calling in Colonel Briggs, but she was simply doing her job and following procedure. Nathan’s boy-toy was of course avoiding her as well. She grimaced at her own thoughts. She wasn’t really being fair to either Carter or Nathan and she knew it. The marshal had actually been helpful in replacing Cobb, especially since he was thrown into the deep end as far as Eureka’s craziness was concerned. She just didn’t have time right now to delve into how she felt about Nathan coming back to Eureka and witnessing how he’d moved on after their divorce. There was also the issue of with whom he’d moved on, and how very, very different Carter was from herself. But again, this was not the time for those thoughts, this was the time to be professional and _to do her damn job_ despite what Nathan felt was or wasn’t necessary.

Right now Nathan and Henry were attempting to look over Walter’s equations to figure out how to restart the tachyon accelerator in order to create a counter-wave to end the temporal instability and displacement waves. From Walter’s notes and their own data it was now clear that the displacement events were the result of the accelerator breaking the laws of physics and causing time to unravel. Unfortunately, not only had the machine suffered damage during the explosion, but a good portion of the data and notes had been partially or wholly destroyed as well – and recreating another scientist’s life’s work in just one afternoon was proving to be next to impossible. 

Carter and Jo Lupo were standing a short distance away arguing with Briggs. The colonel had just ordered his soldiers to round up all the citizens and evacuate them to Eureka’s bunkers – except the marshal was arguing against confining people to areas with little egress when there was no guarantee that the bunkers would even hold against the displacements. Reluctantly agreeing with that logic, she internally grimaced again before stepping over to provide back up for her ex-husband’s new lover.

“Marshal Carter does have a point.” She addressed the Colonel directly to avoid seeing Carter’s response to her insertion into the argument.

“Dr. Blake, the situation is under control and is no longer under D.O.D. jurisdiction.”

“I am aware of that, Colonel, but the town hall, the library, and the old warehouses on Spring Lane each have multiple exits to allow for quicker evacuation. The structures are less sound than the bunkers, yes, but so far the greatest threat has been the sudden appearance of the displacements, not collapsing buildings. I agree that keeping all the citizens monitored and protected is essential, but a different location would allow your soldiers to mobilize them quickly if necessary.”

Allison noticed Carter examine her with a raised eyebrow and a more penetrating look than she had expected him to be capable of. Then he nodded at her, and turned back to Briggs. “It also wouldn’t go amiss to have someone they can trust there to keep everyone calm during the evacuation. The last thing we need is mass panic.”

So it was that she and Jo agreed to work with the task force to round up and calm the citizens. Although she mostly volunteered because it seemed like the right place for her to be at the moment since she couldn’t help Nathan and Henry, Allison was also secretly grateful for the opportunity to check on Kevin – being forcefully rounded up by strange soldiers in full combat gear would have put him into high distress.

It seemed Carter was of a similar mind, since he stopped her and Jo before the two women could leave. Speaking quietly he asked them to watch over his daughter (whom Allison had half-forgotten about). “Look, I know you’re both going to be keeping an eye on everyone, but Zoe is by herself at Nathan’s house and probably worried crazy after what happened at Café Diem earlier. If I thought anyone here would let me, I’d run out there and drag her back here myself, but short of that can you watch out for her?”

Allison softened a little. She still didn’t know where she, Carter, and Nathan stood in relation to each other, but she could respect the worry of a parent. Glancing at Jo, both women nodded and the marshal let out a huge sigh of relief.

********

Jack watched as Deputy Lupo and Dr. Blake left the room. He was still anxious about Zoe, but accepted that the two women could look out for her and that his job right now was to help stop time from going crazy and destroying the world. With that thought, he headed over to his fiancé and Henry Deacon. Behind them was the giant broken chalkboard that apparently contained the key to solving everything – which was of course missing a large segment. Looking at the equation, however, kept niggling something at the back of his brain, and Jack usually tried to pay attention to his instincts. As he stared at the chalkboard and willed the answer to come to him, he ended up mumbling to himself, “I swear this looks familiar.” 

Looking up, he noticed the skeptical looks he was receiving from both Henry and Nathan. “I’m serious!” He gestured at Nathan, “but if it wasn’t something you had lying around, then I’m not sure where I could’ve seen it.” He growled in frustration.

Henry sighed and shrugged. “I don’t know, but _I’ve_ certainly never seen anything like this before. I wonder how long Walter was working on this? I’m not sure this was even in the intended scope of his original project.”

Jack frowned. “If this wasn’t sanctioned, then are you saying he managed to do all this in secret?! Build a crazy machine in his basement that could unravel time?”

“Not without breaking major protocols, and as Henry just said this went way beyond his intended research.” Nathan was clearly angry, and Jack couldn’t blame him. Everything happening now was on Nathan’s watch, even if Walter must have started going off the rails long before the change in directors.

“There’s also the matter of some of the parts Walter used, particularly the Syntek prototype,” Henry cut in. “I don’t know from where he could have acquired it, or if he had assistance in either importing or stealing one.”

Jack looked back and forth between the two scientists; Nathan had gone unaccountably tense. “Well, which labs are the most top secret, you have different levels here right?” Nathan wasn’t answering, and it made the marshal wonder if his fiancé knew something he wasn’t saying – as director he did have access to all of the labs, no matter how classified – so Jack turned back to Henry expectantly.

Reluctantly, Henry admitted, “It could have come from Section 5, but Walter wouldn’t have had access.”

“Section 5?” 

“I’ll look into it, but I don’t think that’s the case,” Nathan interrupted, ending the conversation. He was wearing a steely blank mask that Jack had rarely seen directed at him. The marshal was more sure than ever that his fiancé was hiding something, and even if it was just because the information was way above his clearance level it made Jack’s blood pressure skyrocket. Coming to Eureka had certainly been eye-opening; Nathan had mentioned how intrigued he was to see Jack in his element, but Jack had witnessed a new side of his fiancé too. He’d seen Nathan as a scientist before, pouring over his research until late at night and muttering incomprehensibly to himself. He’d _definitely_ seen Nathan being bossy before, and his actions around that Fargo kid had been not entirely unexpected and rather amusing. This situation, however, was new. This was hardly the first time Jack had experienced an obstruction in one of his investigations due to classified information and cagey administrators, but this was _Nathan_ hiding the information.

Jack paced a few steps away for a moment to cool down. Until and unless the missing/possibly stolen parts became a direct threat to the present problem he’d let Nathan keep his silence on the matter and trust that any internal thefts would eventually be investigated and handled, probably after Jack had left Eureka. As for his frustration at Nathan’s attitude, he just had to remind himself that his fiancé took his job seriously (including keeping the town safe) and was otherwise usually a caring boyfriend (even when he was being an ass) and a loving almost-step-parent to Zoe (and previously Kevin). 

…Wait a second, that was it! He hurried back to where Nathan and Henry were still struggling with the incomplete equation.

“You’re going to think this is crazy, but I think Kevin is the one who can solve this.”

“Kevin?” Nathan looked unsurprisingly skeptical. “I know I’ve told you that we’ve only just begun to see what he is truly capable of, but what makes you think he can complete the equation? You haven’t even met him yet.” 

“Actually, I met him this morning when I was dropping off my suit at the dry cleaners. He was writing out a long equation on the sidewalk, and I swear it was _this_ equation. I don’t know how or why, but I wouldn’t drag him into this if I didn’t believe he could do it.”

Thankfully, Nathan’s trust in him overcame his protectiveness for his former son, because he agreed to bring Kevin in. “Allison isn’t going to like this.”

Jack grimaced. _Yeah, that was probably not going to be a fun conversation._

********

Waiting in Town Hall with a large percentage of Eureka’s population, Allison let the steady barrage of questions and worries being directed at her paradoxically soothe some of her earlier irritation. _This_ was her job. She knew how to manage people, and if she couldn’t help right now scientifically then she could at least keep the citizens calm. She was also glad she’d been allowed to retrieve Kevin herself rather than waiting for the soldiers to round him up with the rest of town. She glanced to her left where her son was currently sitting with Zoe Carter of all people. (Allison had felt compassionate enough to heed the elder Carter’s plea and had personally retrieved Zoe as well. The teenager was alone in a strange town and didn’t need armed soldiers knocking down her door.)

Seeing Zoe and Kevin together however, made her thoughts circle back to Nathan. It was nice to have the momentary break from watching Carter and Nathan’s interactions, but as her fellow citizens settled down and stopped demanding answers she couldn’t give Allison found herself reflecting on the relationship once again. She had actually expected to feel relieved to hear than Nathan had moved on. When he’d come back to Eureka again without warning, she’d been afraid he might want to try things again, when she and Kevin had finally been getting over the divorce. Maybe it was egotistical to think he’d come back for her, (especially since she knew how much he’d always coveted the director’s position), but she also knew how determined he could be and how he refused to accept failure.

That had been what she had expected to feel. Instead she kept finding herself in a territorial dispute with Marshal Carter. She didn’t _want_ Nathan back, she knew that; there were reasons they didn’t work out as a couple. Yet apparently there was a part of her that still loved him, or maybe she was just jealous to see him so happy when she hadn’t been able to move on yet to that extent. Or maybe it was the way that Carter managed to cajole Nathan into actually eating properly and maintaining communication even in the midst of an enormous science distraction, when Nathan had never responded half so well to her. Whatever the answer, it made it difficult to be around the two men for long periods.

A noise outside finally broke her reverie. The soldiers were stationed all around the building to watch for future time displacements and to facilitate a quick evacuation if necessary. Seeing Nathan’s car pulling up was a surprise. If there had been further developments she would have expected someone to call, not drive back into town. 

Sighing, she stepped outside the building to give themselves a little privacy as she addressed her ex-husband and his fiancé, albeit more sharply than was probably necessary. “What is it now?”

“Actually we’re here for Kevin.” 

Her eyes flew to Nathan’s, even as she replied to the Marshal. _Was Nathan really on board with this?_ “What do you want with my son?”

“I think he can help us solve Walter Perkins’ equation. When he and I talked earlier, he…”

Allison cut him off, absolutely furious. _How dare he! And how dare Nathan!_ “Is this some kind of joke? My son barely speaks to anyone, including me. If you…”

Nathan was wearing the expressionless mask she had always hated, but the Marshal’s eyes had widened and he’d thrown up his hands in defense. “Hey, I know. I mean, I know he’s autistic. Nathan told me. I wouldn’t joke about that, but I _did_ talk with him this morning. Right, Archimedes?”

The last bit was addressed over her shoulder, and Allison turned to see that Kevin and Zoe had exited the building after her. While Zoe ran over to give hugs to both her father and Nathan, Kevin came up beside Allison. He didn’t make eye contact with any of the three adults, but he did make a small humming noise as he leaned into her side.

“Exactly. We had a nice little chat. He told me about the fountain on Main Street and showed me his equations – equations that looked identical to what Walter Perkins was apparently working on.”

Allison still had trouble believing this wasn’t a sick joke, even knowing how extraordinary Kevin could be. “Is that true, baby?” She refused to get her son involved in this whole mess unless there was really a reason.

To her surprise, Kevin glanced up at Carter out of the corner of his eye with the barest hint of a smile. “Tuesday balances Friday.” She had no idea what that meant, but the Marshal looked inexplicably pleased, and Nathan’s eyes widened slightly as he glanced between Carter and Kevin with what actually appeared to be awe.

********

As the group returned from Town Hall, Nathan saw Henry glance up from where he continued to re-wire the tachyon accelerator. They had of course brought Zoe back as well as Allison and Kevin, since there was no way either Jack or Zoe were willing for her to be left behind. (For his own part, Nathan was just as glad to have all the people he cared about where he could keep them safe.)

The room hushed as he led Kevin (still leaning against his mother) over to the incomplete chalkboard, and he found himself holding his breath as Kevin looked quietly at the board. Even Colonel Briggs and his soldiers paused and fell silent. A minute passed. Then two.

When Briggs started muttering his complaints about this being a waste of time, Nathan was surprised to hear Jack chime in with agreement. 

“You’re right, this is isn’t working.” But even as he spoke, Jack was stepping forward to remove the chalkboard from its stand and to gently lay the board out flat on the ground. “There you go buddy,” he said offering the chalk once more to Kevin.

And then Kevin was moving, kneeling down to scratch out symbols on the ground. Nathan retreated to the computer to enter each piece of the equation as his former step-son added it, while Henry whipped out his notebook to double-check through the calculations himself. By the time Kevin finished, Nathan wasn’t even surprised to find that the formula checked out. 

As he glanced back, he saw Kevin exchange a secretive smile with Jack. Nathan found himself torn between marveling at the boy whose fathomless genius had solved the equation and the man who had so uniquely understood and facilitated Kevin’s needs. He hoped nobody was studying him too closely, since he felt such an uncomfortable burst of love in that moment that it was probably plain on his face – between the incredible way Jack had managed to connect with Kevin and Jack’s sideways brilliance appearing once again. (Although there was a fair bit of lust thrown in too, which unfortunately had to wait until they managed to save the world.)

The call of science quickly reasserted itself however as he and Henry rushed to implement the completed formula in order to recreate Walter’s experiment. As they worked, the two scientists fed on each other’s elation – breaking the laws of physics like this was revolutionary! Nathan also relished the opportunity to work with Henry like this once again. He had always held his former teacher in high regard, and had once considered the man a father figure. Hopefully, they would have many more opportunities to collaborate now that he was back in Eureka, even with Nathan’s new administrative role.

Once the last cable was hooked in place, and Henry had finished realigning the inner rings of the machine, Nathan ran one last check on the accelerator. This _needed_ to work. He glanced up at the window where Allison stood with her arm around Kevin, mirroring the position of Jack and Zoe. His past and his future side by side.

He flipped the switch and the world exploded with light.


	6. Coming Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year everyone! We've finally come to the end, but thank you to everyone who has encouraged me along the way.

Jack looked at himself in the mirror and took a deep breath. “You can do this. No big deal.” He cracked his neck to the side and re-adjusted his collar for the fifth time.

A giggle interrupted his self-directed pep talk as Zoe stuck her head into the bathroom. “Isn’t talking to yourself like the first sign of insanity? Do I need to warn Nathan?”

He turned to glare at her, before looking back to the mirror once more. He’d say Nathan was a bad influence on Zoe, but really that sass was probably all from him.

Sighing, Zoe leaned fully against the doorway. “Dad, remember what you told me on my first day of school?”

Jack paused and smiled. _Wow, it had been so long since Zoe had been that pig-tailed little five-year-old looking up at him with a mixture of trepidation and excitement._ “I told you that I knew you were ready to take on the world, but that if you were ever scared or nervous, to know that I would be there to support you.”

Leaning over to give him a sideways hug, Zoe smiled at their joint reflection and said, “Well, right back at you. …Although you totally got this. Now, go put on your jacket or something so I can steal the bathroom.” So saying, she spun them both around so she could push him out the door.

He resisted the urge to say something back about teenage girls hogging the bathroom – refraining because she’d likely turn it back on him with how much time he’d spent in there earlier – before taking one more deep breath. _He could do this._

********

Nathan stood waiting for him at the back of the aisle, impeccable in his tuxedo. They hadn’t been planning on sticking to the whole ‘not seeing each other on the big day’ thing, but of course something had come up at G.D. that morning that Nathan had had to go in and take care of. Jack crossed his fingers and hoped that that would be the only disaster of the day. He’d been in Eureka now for two months and knew _exactly_ how things went around here.

Although, it hadn’t been nearly this nerve-wracking on his first day as Sheriff. He and Lupo were still sounding each other out, but that was to be expected with a change in boss. Especially with the rumors of favoritism floating around – even though both Jack and Nathan had tried to be transparent about the fact that Jack was outside of the chain of command of G.D. and thus was appointed by someone higher up the food chain. (The relationship auditor they’d had to face to prove that they could be impartial in their respective jobs factored as hands down one of the most annoying and awkward days of his life.)

Likewise, things between the Carter/Stark household and Allison Blake were still awkward, but they were getting better. Nathan took Kevin for dinner one night a week, sometimes with Zoe and Jack, sometimes without. Both father and son were clearly enjoying the chance to reconnect and build a new relationship, even if Kevin’s forms of expressing that pleasure were sometimes very subtle. (Nathan’s too for that matter.)

Kevin and Allison were currently seated near the outside aisle, in the rows of chairs that had been set up in Copernicus Park for the occasion. It was nice of her to come despite the probable weirdness of watching her ex-husband getting re-married – Jack sure as hell hadn’t invited Abby. Then again, the turnout in general was larger than he expected, with the majority of the seats already full with various other citizens of Eureka.

Zoe was their only family present however. His sister, Lexi, was off in Brazil with the World Health Organization and Nathan wasn’t close to any of his family. So it was just the small gathering of people in town – well as small as anything got in Eureka apparently. (Maybe it was small town camaraderie or some combination of boredom and a free party, but Jack was still touched at the turnout.) Vincent had been over the moon to do the catering and had several tables overflowing with tasty (and no doubt unique) offerings that Jack couldn’t wait to sample. The truth was, though, that having each done a big fancy wedding before, Jack and Nathan wanted something small and simple.

Part of him still couldn’t believe that he was even here, that he was actually getting re-married after how badly things had ended last time. He and Nathan had only been engaged for three months after all. Heck, it had been _less than a year since they’d even started dating!_

Next to them, Zoe was standing so mature and beautiful that Jack gave himself a minor heart attack reminding himself that it was not _her_ wedding. _(Not yet at least. Still several more years until that, please, please, please.)_ As Best Woman, Flowergirl, and Ringbearer all rolled into one, she was poised ready to precede them down the aisle. (Of course, since she was still a minor she couldn’t sign as a witness, so Dep. Lupo and Dr. Fargo would be signing instead. He felt a little weird about asking their subordinates to serve in this role, but Jack hadn’t really had a chance to make any deep friendships in Eureka yet and Nathan’s closest friend was Henry – who was serving as officiant.)

He stopped his musings as Nathan reached over to squeeze his hand, looking fondly exasperated with Jack’s distraction. At the trill of light music from Eureka’s own string quartet, Zoe gave each of them one last hug before smilingly processing down the aisle. _This was it._ Jack gripped Nathan’s hand a little tighter, and hand-in-hand walked down the aisle.

********

Zoe felt like she was in a happy daze – even without Vincent’s punch that Nathan had warned her in no uncertain terms not to sample. After her parents’ divorce she never thought she’d feel this sense of family ever again. Was it only a few months ago that she had been running away unsure of her place in her parents’ lives? Now she had a new home living with her dad, plus gaining a new step-dad and even a quasi-step-brother. And the town was beginning to feel like home too. Eureka was frankly bizarre, but the quirkiness kept things interesting, and everyone was mostly pretty welcoming – as evidenced by the large turnout to her dad’s wedding.

She smoothed out her lilac dress, and winked at one of the boys over by the buffet table. Her dad and Nathan hadn’t really cared about color themes and stuff like that, so she’d gotten free reign to pick out whatever dress she wanted (well, free reign minus some hem and neckline requirements). While technically the party was all about the grooms, Zoe still felt like the belle of the ball amongst the other teenagers. A few of the boys from school had even been asking her to dance (either very brave, or hoping that her overprotective parents were too wrapped up in each other to pull their normal intimidation tricks).

After a quick look around the party, she smiled as she saw her father and new step-father waltzing on the small dance floor that had been set up – or rather attempting to, considering both apparently kept trying to lead. Drifting closer, she couldn’t help giggling a little as she overheard her dad and Nathan bickering even on their wedding day.

“Nathan, I swear, if you blow up the world on my watch, you’re sleeping on the couch.” 

“You know, it is _my_ house.” 

“What happened to what’s mine is yours?” 

“Then the couch can be yours too…”

Yeah, her parents were weird, but it was nice to see them so happy. …Although maybe if they were sufficiently distracted she could try some of that punch after all.


End file.
